4 Answers
4

Recommends are installed by default (since Lucid). To negate this for a specific package, use apt-get --no-install-recommends install pkg. Suggests, however, are not. You can install the suggests for a single package installation by using apt-get -o APT::Install-Suggests="true" install pkg.

When you use --install-suggests make sure you examine the list of programs that will be installed - sometimes you get quite a list of programs that are put onto your system (try --install-suggests with TuxGuitar)
–
Charles GreenOct 26 '14 at 22:40